Play it again
by MangaPirate
Summary: What I think would happen if the Strawhats and the Heart pirates were bands. Featuring Yumi from "Facing the real world" by Kaiyumi7788 and Mariko from my "Cursed" fanfic, obviously deals with OCs. Don't judge a story by it's summary or you'll miss out :P


**Well Hi to anyone who reading this!  
Anyways, I'd just like to say a big thank you to my buddy Kaiyumi7788 for letting me use Yumi. **

**A little background history on this story, I actually started it months ago but forgot about it…and that's about it…XD**

**Anyways, although it isn't vital, I would suggest that you read Kaiyumi7788's story "Facing the real world" and my "Cursed" to understand our OCs a little better, and because I've added little jokes and similarities in this story. (Most likely won't affect the story if you don't see them)**

**I'm also going to keep this as "In-Progress" because I'm not sure if I'll add another chapter or not, guess it'll depend how many people like this/review it or if inspiration decides to help me out. XD**

**Also Fanfiction hates me and won't let me divide things using the dashes or star things so I'll be dividing the story with "-This is a time/scene skip…this is the only way Fanfiction'll let me divide things…Ignore this-" Sorry for the very annoying inconvenience… **

**Anyways, ON WITH THE FANFIC!**

Mariko looked around the park. 'Shit, I'm late.'

Her dark purple eyes searched the area for her friend. 'First time I see her in over a month and I'm almost 15 minutes late.' She muttered to herself.

It was a moderately hot day, but she barely felt it, despite her solid black wardrobe. Out of the corner of her eye she saw someone waving at her.

Mariko smiled. It was good to know her friend hadn't changed too much since she'd last seen her. She was still wearing her beige cargo pants and white tank top. Her crystal clear light blue eyes still reflected her strong spirit. The only thing that had changed was her new skater shoes.

'Sorry! I'm late!' She called out to her friend as she ran over.

Yumi looked at her vaguely annoyed then grinned. 'Meh, it's ok. Let's just get going ok?'

Mariko smiled nervously.

'So how've you been?' Yumi asked absentmindedly brushing a strand of her messy hair away from her face. The sun bounced off her dark blue, almost, black hair.

Mariko sighed. 'I'm alright, but the people I work with are a total pain.'

Yumi rolled her eyes. 'They can't be that bad.'

'Sometimes they're ok, but the contract I'm in practically bonds me to them.' Mariko grumbled.

'That's the music business for yah. By the way, what's the name of the guy you work for again?'

Mariko grimaced. 'Trafalgar Law from the Heart band, god, I wish I could punch that smug face of his.' She growled.

Yumi sighed. 'Listen Mariko, just chill. I'm pretty sure you're just overreacting, just give them some time, you need the money and you've only been working for them for a few weeks.'

'Yeah yeah, I know.'

'Besides, you like writing songs and you're really good at it, so you should stop acting all pissy and look on the bright side.'

'You're right, but he's still an asshole. So what've you been doing lately? I was really surprised when you called to tell me you'd be in the city for a few weeks.'

'Well, while I was gone, I met up with some really cool guys and joined their band, weird huh?' Yumi replied giggling.

Mariko laughed an idea formed in her mind. 'Hey, how about you tell me all about it over a snack? I'll treat you. There's a nice little café down the street.'

Yumi grinned. 'Cool! Lead the way.'

**-This is a time/scene skip…this is the only way Fanfiction'll let me divide things…Ignore this-**

'So what's the name of the band you joined?' Mariko asked sipping her cola.

Yumi sipped her orange juice. 'They're called the Strawhats. They're a new band so not many people have heard of them.' She delicately picked up her straw with her teeth.

Mariko smiled as the waiter came and placed their order on the table.

Yumi raised an eyebrow. 'So what's this called again?'

Mariko smirked. 'It's called "Fruit surprise". It's a bunch of miscellaneous fruit piled on a little angel food cake with whipped cream on top.'

Yumi dropped her straw in her cup and grinned. 'Sounds good!'

Mariko ate her dessert and silently watched Yumi devour her food. Mariko drummed her finger on the table, unsure of what to say next.

'So yeah, the guy who does the lead vocals is a fantastic cook!' Yumi said between swallows. 'He always makes the food while we're travelling.'

Mariko's mouth twitched into a smile. The Heart band members took turns cooking.

'He made this cake that was so good! It was this big!' Yumi stretched out her arms-right as a waiter carrying some drinks passed by their table. Yumi's hand hit the waiter causing him to lose his balance and sent the drinks flying. Almost every single one of them splashed all over Yumi.

Yumi screamed. Mariko blinked and turned to give the waiter an Apologize-now-or-I'll-kick-your-ass-so-hard-you-won't-be-able-to-sit-down-for-weeks glare.

The color drained from the waiter's face as he hastily apologized. Yumi glared but reluctantly accepted his apology. With one last glare from each of the girls, Mariko slammed a few bills on the table and they left.

Yumi gritted her teeth. 'Jeez, now I'm going to have to go change. If he wrecked any of the stuff in my pockets I'll kick his ass!' She turned to Mariko with an apologetic look. 'I'm going to need to cut our reunion a little short, I need to go back to where I'm staying to get some dry clothes, wanna come?'

Mariko hesitated but nodded. After all it wouldn't take that long.

'Look on the bright side! At least now you'll be able to meet the guys instead of hearing me blab about them.'

Mariko forced a smile. If there was one thing she couldn't stand, it was socializing.

Yumi must have noticed her discomfort. 'Don't worry. We won't be there for very long.'

Mariko hoped they wouldn't.

**-This is a time/scene skip…this is the only way Fanfiction'll let me divide things…Ignore this-**

'Well here we are,' Yumi said cheerily, 'our temporary home sweet home!'

Mariko did a double take on the building in front of her. It was as if an architect was hyper on massive amounts of sugar and had decided to make a building, if you could call it that. It was by far one of the craziest buildings Mariko had ever seen. And to top it all off there was a large sculpture hanging over the door way.

'Is that a…lion?' Mariko asked in disbelief.

Yumi flashed her friend a smile. 'You bet! Can you believe that some people thought it was a sun?'

Mariko blinked and wasn't sure how to respond.

'Anyways, we'll just stop in, say hi to the gang, grab my stuff and we'll be on our way!'

Mariko nodded stiffly. Well they might as well get it over with now. She took one step through the door and was promptly run over.

A dark haired teenage boy collided with Mariko which sent them both tumbling backwards. The boy jumped up, standing on Mariko and slammed the door shut.

The boy sighed in relief and noticed Yumi staring at him. 'Yumi! You're back!' he yelled, oblivious to the twitching body underneath him. 'I thought you weren't coming back until tonight! How's your friend?'

Yumi glanced down nervously at Mariko, whose eye was twitching with fury. 'Umm Luffy?'

'Yeah?'

'You're kind of…standing on her…'

Everyone was silent. Luffy looked at Mariko then to Yumi. 'Hey Yumi, there's a weird girl lying under me. When'd she get there?'

Mariko couldn't contain her anger any longer. 'You ran over me damn it!' she screamed throwing the boy off her stomach. 'I'm going to kick your fucking ass!'

Yumi quickly stepped in front of the cursing Mariko and held her back. 'No Mariko! You can't kill him!' she growled while casting murderous glares at Luffy who was rolling around on the ground laughing.

Yumi pushed Mariko down. 'Now look, I know you're angry, but you need to calm down. Luffy didn't mean to knock you over so just chill alright? You're going to get me kicked out of the band.' She turned to Luffy. 'As for you, apologize.' She ordered.

Luffy scratched his head. 'Umm, sorry…Hey Yumi?'

'What is it Luffy?'

'What am I apologizing for?'

Mariko twitched. That boy had a death wish and she was going to grant it. Yumi noticed Mariko's rising temper and hissed in her ear, 'Calm down, he's the producer, piss him off and I'm fired.'

Mariko gritted her teeth.

'Luffy! You bastard! I told you not to eat the food yet!' An angry voice yelled from behind the door.

Mariko watched in shock as the door burst open and a tall blond young man walked through it. Mariko wondered if his anger was fueling the smoke swirling from his cigarette.

'You're supposed to save some for the rest of us!' the blond growled before proceeding to kick Luffy over the head. Mariko stared dumb folded and Yumi just sighed.

'Does this happen all the time?' Mariko wondered as she watched Yumi stared off into space, completely ignoring the battle in front of them.

'Umm, should we…stop them?' she asked awkwardly. Yumi shook her head. 'Once they get started it's better to leave them alone.'

Mariko grimaced as the blond kicked Luffy several times in the face. She was all for watching a fight but this one seemed a little one-sided. Just who was this guy?

'His name's Sanji, just to let you know.' Yumi said reading her mind. 'He's the lead vocals and the cook. The guy I was telling you about.'

Ah, so that's why he was so furious about Luffy eating the food.

'Let's go inside, it's probably safer.' Yumi advised grabbing Mariko's hand.

Mariko watched the fight out of the corner of her eye. 'I wonder how the rest of the band is.' She thought to herself.

**-This is a time/scene skip…this is the only way Fanfiction'll let me divide things…Ignore this-**

Whatever idea she'd had on what the room looked like, it definitely wasn't this. It looked like someone had combined ten different personalities and built the room to reflect each of them. Mismatched furniture, books and CDs littered the room. Mariko had to rub her eyes to make sure she wasn't seeing things.

A young man slept soundly in the corner of the room. His short sleeve t-shirt highlighted the muscles on his tanned skin. A bandana hid his hair and part of his face. The air around him screamed an unspoken message.

_Wake me up and die._

'That's someone I wouldn't want to meet in a dark alley.' She thought to herself. 'I hope no one wakes him up.'

Unfortunately, at that same time, Yumi was thinking something very similar. Flashing an evil grin at Mariko she pounced at the sleeping man.

Now what happened next was anybody's guess. One minute Yumi was in the air, the next she was laying on the floor at the opposite side of the room. The young man's expression was of pure concentration…and extreme annoyance.

'How many times will it take for you to understand that you can't sneak up on me when I'm sleeping?' he growled.

Yumi grinned. 'Good afternoon to you too!' she chimed. She smiled sweetly at Mariko. 'This is our drummer Zoro, don't worry, he'll be seeing a therapist soon.'

The green haired man glared at her with murderous eyes. Mariko narrowed her eyes. Oh, it was going to be fun hanging around him.

Yumi must have caught on to the rising tension, because she grabbed her friend's arm firmly and almost dragged her out of the room. 'We're just going to grab a few things from my room then we're going.' She called over her shoulder.

Zoro nodded them slumped down to the floor. Mariko could still feel him watching her even after they'd closed the door behind them.

'Don't worry about him, he just doesn't like people.' Yumi said trying to reassure her.

'So how many members are in your band?' Mariko asked changing the subject.

'Including me? There are ten of us. So far you've met Luffy our producer, Sanji the lead vocalist and Zoro our anti-social drummer.'

Mariko quietly committed the names, positions and faces to memory. 'So you're telling there're seven more still running around?'

'You got it.'

'Great, so where's your room?'

'Chill, it's just down the hall.'

They walked in silence for a few minutes. They could still faintly Luffy and Sanji's fight coming from the other side of the walls.

'So, how many people are in the Heart band?' Yumi asked breaking the silence.

Mariko chewed her lip. 'I'm not sure.' She said quietly.

Yumi raised an eyebrow.

'I've only been with them for a few weeks, I know the main guys but the others… I haven't really paid attention to.'

Yumi sighed deeply.

Mariko could feel her face burning. 'I'm working on it ok? This is the first time in years I've actually stayed in one place with a group of people. I'm not used to it.'

Yumi sighed. Mariko had been living with her aunt for years, she'd never said it out loud but she'd hinted she didn't see eye to eye with her father. Her aunt was a traveler and never stayed in one spot for more than two months.

'Well you're going to need to learn to deal with them soon.'

'I know.'

Yumi paused and sighed. 'You know I'm not trying to be mean or anything, I'm just being blunt with you.'

Mariko smiled weakly and punched her friend in the arm. 'Yeah yeah, now where's your room?'

Yumi rubbed her arm. 'We're standing right in front of it.'

**-This is a time/scene skip…this is the only way Fanfiction'll let me divide things…Ignore this-**

'So far today I've met up with you, had drinks spilt on me and stopped 2 fights. Am I forgetting anything?'

Mariko shook her head. 'Not that I know of.'

Yumi grinned. 'Great! Now all that's left is to…' she said trailing off.

Mariko looked up to see an orange haired girl standing at the end of the hallway. She was looking right at them.

'Oh shit.' Yumi mumbled under her breath.

'Yumi.' The girl said stiffly.

'Nami.' Yumi said evenly.

'I thought you were going out today.'

'I was, but I needed to change my clothes, is there a problem?'

'No, I just thought that you were busy, but since you're here now we might as well practice so grab your stuff and meet us in the practice room.'

'OI! I never said I was staying!'

'I never asked you that, I'm telling you we're having a practice now. So grab your stuff or you're out of the band.'

Mariko watched in disbelief as the girl-Nami-walked off. Yumi looked like she was going to kill someone.

'That hag!' Yumi growled.

Mariko blinked. 'What does she do?'

Yumi sighed. 'She's the manager.'

'Nice girl.'

Yumi rolled her eyes. 'You don't know that half of it. Well I guess you'll be meeting the rest of the gang sooner than we thought.'

**-This is a time/scene skip…this is the only way Fanfiction'll let me divide things…Ignore this-**

If there could only be one place in the world that was the most chaotic, the Strawhats' recording room. There was shouting, swears and fights breaking out every second.

Mariko sat huddled in a corner, making mental observations, drinking in the scene. Whenever the Heart band had a rehearsal, the room had a more laid-back aura, it certainly was quieter. She sighed, caught up in her thoughts. At least now she knew all the members.

There was Franky, the technician, who was loudly testing the sound system.  
'Shouldn't he at least be wearing some shorts?' Mariko wondered.

Robin the agent, quietly sitting on a chair reading her book, how she was able to tune out the noise so easily was a mystery. But she seemed to be the kind of person who deserved to be treated respect.

Usopp, the bass guitarist, was polishing his instrument muttering something about how someone needed to take care of their equipment.  
Mariko decided it would be best not to ask him why his nose was in such a weird shape.

Brook, the lead guitarist, was playing a familiar tune and was quietly singing under his breath.  
Mariko gave a mental shiver. As soon as she'd walked through the door he came up to her asking to see her panties. This was why she was huddled in a corner watching him out of the corner of her eye. Just in case. Yumi had told her to ignore Brook, who apparently did this all the time, but Mariko still felt uneasy.

Chopper, the keyboardist, was drinking something sugary while reading over his sheet music.  
This member interested Mariko the most. She wondered if he'd freak out if she tried to hug him, since it was out of the question for Bepo.

As for the other members, Nami was shouting out orders, Zoro and Sanji were arguing (something about which was more important vocals or drums) and Luffy was at the refreshments table, which was supposed to be for everyone after practice.

'I wonder when Sanji'll notice?' she wondered as Luffy inhaled a chicken leg.

'Alright! We're going to play this all the way through.' Nami barked. Every member suddenly stopped what they were doing and took their places.

Mariko decided not to ask what would've happened if they'd disobeyed her.

'Sorry about this.'

Mariko looked up to see Yumi smiling apologetically at her.

'It's alright, I'm fine. So what song are you guys gonna be playing?'

Yumi grinned. 'You've already heard of it, Bink's Sake.'

Suddenly she knew what Brook had been singing earlier. 'That old tune? Wasn't it written by "Rumbar" years ago?'

'That's the one! Brook's actually an original member so he knows the song the best. He's also given us permission to play it.'

'Yumi! We're about to start!' Nami yelled.

Yumi sighed and turned to go. 'Well I got to go, hope you enjoy the song.'

Mariko nodded as she watched her friend take her place.

The room went eerily quiet, there was no talking, no moving, and it was as if everyone was holding their breath. Then as if they'd all heard a silent cue, they began.

Music poured into the room, filling it completely. Mariko closed her eyes and focused solely on the sounds. It was like an unseen force warmed her insides and calming her mind. Sanji's deep voice singing the lyrics, Yumi's soft voice floating in and out, Zoro's drums giving the band a steady beat, Brook's guitar shaping the song, Usopp's bass playing in the background and Chopper's keyboard filling in the rest.

'This is beautiful,' Mariko thought to herself.

When the song faded, Mariko did something crazy. Something she would've never even considered in her life, and if she did she would've brushed it off and forgotten it completely.

When the song ended she stood up and cheered.

**-This is a time/scene skip…this is the only way Fanfiction'll let me divide things…Ignore this-**

'I'm sorry that we didn't get to spend the day together.' Yumi apologized.

Mariko smiled. 'It's alright, besides, now I know what kind of people you've been hanging out with.'

'Well if you're free tomorrow we could do something.'

'Cool, but maybe next time I'll introduce you to my band.'

'That'd be cool.'

'Anyways I'd better get going. The building we're renting is on the other side of town and it'll be getting dark soon. Tell everyone it was nice meeting them.'

'Hey Mariko?'

'Hmm?'

'Just hang in there, it'll get better. So don't let them bring you down.'

Mariko smiled. 'Thanks, I'll see you later.'

**-This is a time/scene skip…this is the only way Fanfiction'll let me divide things…Ignore this-**

Mariko walked through the almost deserted building, footsteps echoing off the walls. Most of the Heart members were off doing their own thing, so it was pretty quiet, completely opposite to where she'd just been.

'Well isn't this depressing…' she muttered to herself. She was just about to go into her room when she heard it, soft music coming from down the hall.

The music was so pure and lulling, she found herself unconsciously walking towards it. It was as if the music was calling her.

As she got closer her heart beat faster. She felt nothing but the longing for the tune. She opened the door and slipped inside.

A young man sat in the middle of the room playing his guitar and humming under his breath. The sleeves of his hoodie were rolled up almost to his elbows exposing his tattoos and his northern style hat covering most of his face.

Mariko felt her cheeks burn as she stood there, not wanting to leave and not wanting to interrupt.

The man stopped and looked up, his grey eyes meeting her dark purple. His mouth curled into a smile. 'Good evening, did you have fun with your friend on your day out?' he asked politely.

She nodded stiffly. 'I did.'

'That's good.'

An uneasy silence fell between them.

'What were you playing just now? It was amazing.' She asked.

He studied her for a moment as if deciding how to answer her. 'It was a tune I used to listen to on the radio.'

'What's it called?'

'It's been a while since I heard it, but I think it's called Bink's Sake.'

Her face broke into a grin.

He cocked his head grinning. 'Is something the matter? In the few weeks I've known you, I've never seen you smile like that.'

She snorted and walked over and sat beside him. 'I'm going to ignore that.'

'If that's what you want.'

'…Hey Law?'

'Yes?'

'Could you play it again?'

He smiled gently. 'Of course, all you had to do was ask.'


End file.
